Cold Harbor Sunset

Two cannon today mark the approximate spot once occupied by the four-gun battery of the Richmond Fayette Artillery—part of Maj. J. P. W. Read’s battalion. The battalion, says a Park Service sign at the position, “held strategic points along the Confederate main line.” The battery here supported the Georgia brigade of Gen. Alfred Colquitt on June 1, 1864, the sign explains.

“few men fell until we reached within [eighty yards] of the enemy’s first line,” a member of the 8th New York Heavy Artillery said, “when they opened upon us with canister [and] grape hurling it into our faces and mowing down our lines as wheat falls before the reaper.” (as printed on the NPS sign)